======================================================================== WHO'S VOICE ARE YOU LISTENING TO？ by Lee McClelland ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of listening to the voice of God amidst challenging times, highlighting the need to prioritize God's Word over the various voices and influences in the world. It stresses the power and clarity found in Scripture, urging listeners to seek guidance, hope, and transformation through the Word of God. The speaker shares personal experiences and biblical examples to underscore the significance of aligning with God's voice above all others. Duration: 18:46 Topics: "Listening to God's Voice", "Prioritizing Scripture" Scripture References: Hebrews 4:12, John 1:1, Genesis 3:1, Luke 24:32, Philippians 2:5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of listening to the voice of God amidst challenging times, highlighting the need to prioritize God's Word over the various voices and influences in the world. It stresses the power and clarity found in Scripture, urging listeners to seek guidance, hope, and transformation through the Word of God. The speaker shares personal experiences and biblical examples to underscore the significance of aligning with God's voice above all others. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Praise the Lord, folks. Again, it's just a joy to be able to bring you the Word of God again in this series of the Glory of God and the Souls of Man. Folks, we're living in trying times. We're living in difficult days, particularly for the church, people's jobs, people's livelihoods, this coronavirus. Everything that is, we've known before in our freedoms and our liberties and the way of being able to come and go. Folks, we're in tough days. I've been listening to the news. I've been reading maybe too much on articles, but I'm trying to keep my ear to the ground and I'm trying to hear the voice of God. I'm trying to hear what the Lord is saying. And as I'm listening to all that is beginning to happen, the control measures they're beginning to put in place, the restrictions they're putting in people's lives and understanding, of course, the seriousness of this virus. But folks, listen, I hear the cry of people. I hear the cry of not just coronavirus. I hear the cry of circumstances, the cry of finances, the cry of health, the cry of families, the cry of marriages, the cry of people in despair, the cry of the attic. Folks, when I look across the whole spectrum of human life, there's a cry and it just brought me to this place in thinking, there's a voice that we need to hear above everything else. There's a voice that needs to transcend, as it were, the voice of a man, that needs to transcend the voice even of a preacher. It needs to transcend the voice of a government or governments. It's the voice of God. We need to be listening to a voice, folks, that is so clear, so crystal clear in these days. We need to come to this place, folks, where God is speaking to you and speaking to me. And I don't mean in a sense of confusion, of telling you one thing and telling me different or vice versa, but a voice from these pages of Scripture that we're so unified. We're so together. We're like the book of Acts of one accord. Because folks, there's coming dark days. There's coming days when we're going to need each other. There's coming days when we're going to need to hear the voice of God. Days when the government and people around us are so confused, so divided. Even Santas are divided. But folks, we need a voice of clarity. Allow me to read to you out of the book of Hebrews. For the Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to dividing asunder the soul and the spirit, and of the joints and the marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Folks, the Word of God is incredible. I've come to learn over the 21 years of my Christian life that I cannot live without His voice. I cannot go a day without His voice. I wake up in the morning, and the first thing I do is reach for the Word of God. I reach to read what the Word has to say. There's some mornings I get up and I read, and nothing necessarily speaks to me. Nothing jumps from the page. But yet there's mornings when I wake up and, oh, the Word of God is so alive. But folks, I'm not looking for a sermon at times. I'm not looking just for a message. I just need to hear what does the Word of God have to say to my life? How can I apply it to my life? How can I bring it into my life? How can I use the Word of God for the purpose of others? How can I use the Word of God in my circumstances in what I'm dealing with and what I'm going through? How does the Word of God apply to your lives? And folks, it brought me to this. There's so many voices at the minute, so many people with an opinion, so many people with what they think, and so many people that are listening to the other voices. The media has a lot to answer for, folks, and I know we need a free media, but they have so much to answer for. They have, over the last number of months, they've always brought bad news, folks. Very rarely on the news do you hear a good news story, but folks, they've always brought bad news. But particularly this last eight months, we have heard nothing but fear, nothing but fear, nothing but a message of doom. What about the people that are surviving? What about the people with a good news story? What about, folks, the people that are raising up in life and doing something that is courageous? Hallelujah. What about those folks in the church who have testimonies of the goodness of God? Folks, you'll not hear that in the live stream media. You see, there's so many voices. There's so many Christians that have succumbed to the voice of the enemy. They have listened to the narrative fear. They have listened to hopeless cases. They have listened to a world that is in chaos. We have listened, folks, and folks, I cannot help but think that somewhere in the midst of this, the devil has been at work. He has taken a genuine virus, a genuine case, a genuine cause, but he has so crippled the hearts of people with fear. We read in the narrative that the word of God is quick and powerful. Folks, a lot of you know my story and how I knew what it was to go through coronavirus. A lot of you have read my story and seen the testimony of how God sustained me and the medical staff were incredible and we thank God for them, but folks, it was the voice of God I needed to hear. Many times I had said in that time that there was never a voice of hope. There was never a point in time, and I say reverently, that a doctor or a nurse or anybody came to me and says, we think you're going to make it. We think you're going to come out the other side. Folks, I needed something to cling to. I needed something greater than me. I needed something greater than the doctors. I needed something greater than the nurses. I needed something. I needed the voice of God Almighty to come into my life and speak to me. And folks, every day when I was in hospital, every day from then, every day before that, I have turned to the Word of God. I have reached to it. I have said, Lord, let me hear your voice. You see, folks, it brings me to this. What voice are you listening to? Who is the greatest influence in your life? Who has time in your life? What voice do you hear to? What voice are you listening to? You see, I've met so many people that have listened to the wrong voice, listened to the wrong advice, listened to somebody speak negative to them, listened to somebody put them down, listened to somebody tell them that they're worthless. I have met so many people that have listened to the voice of the drug dealer, that have listened to the voice of the drugs, called to them. I remember chatting with somebody recently who said to me over coffee, Oh, it's as if there's a voice in my head just continually saying to me, do drugs. Folks, I can tell you that's not the voice of God. I've listened to so many people who have been, folks, led down a path of destruction because they listened to a word as a voice in themselves or outside of themselves to influence their life. They've listened to an inner voice. It may not be audible, something within them that tells them that sin is good. And folks, sin has its pleasures, but it also has a payday. You see, so many times we have listened to voices that make people do stupid things. It's like the old saying, do you remember when you were younger, you heard your mom saying to you or your dad, when you're trying to get out of something that somebody told me to do it, and your mom says to you, if you stuck your head in the fire, if they said you to put your head in the fire, would you do it? Folks, how easily we are influenced by other people in the negative context usually. How easily are we influenced? And how many times have we been responsible, folks, for being the influence in a negative sense? All folks that we would become people that would influence others for the glory of God, that we would pour into others, that we would tell them of their value, that we would tell them of the Christ that loves them, that we would tell them of the seriousness of salvation, that we would tell them of forgiveness of sins, that we would tell them when the world has cast them aside, that we would tell them that they can be used of God. Hallelujah. Folks, that we would use our voice as a voice of hope, because that's what this world needs. And folks, the word of God brings a voice of hope. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You see, I go right back to Genesis. And again, there was voices. And it was particularly the voice of God and the voice of the serpent. And we see this incredible picture, or even a way back then, when God had says, do not take of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We see that cry. We see the heart of God. We see that God had provided everything for Adam and Eve, and for the population to become. We would see of the substance and the fruit and the vegetation. We would see the animals. We would see perfect harmony. We would see people living in peace. We would see people secure in what they've got. We would see that God had provided everything for them, folks. But there was a voice that came one day. And we can go into all the ins and outs, why did God allow this? And why did God allow this to happen? And why was there a tree? Folks, we don't have the answers to some of the things, but here's what I know. Man had a choice. God had made man in such a way that he allowed us to choose. But there was a voice that crept into the garden. And folks, that voice came in and whispered in the ear of Eve. Has God really said? You see, all of a sudden, folks, she began to heed the voice that was whispered in her ear. And so many times, folks, the devil has come and he's whispered in your ear. And he's whispered, has God really said? You see, I come back to this one thing, folks. It's God's word that will sustain you. And only if Adam and Eve had listened away back then, God's word would have sustained them. God's word would have protected them. God's word would have brought clarity, a deadbling clarity, but Eve chose to listen to the serpent. Adam chose to listen to his wife. I don't want to get in trouble with women, but the truth was Adam listened to his wife. Eve listened to the serpent. You see, there was a voice. And it's amazing how in people's lives, folks, that they're usually influenced by the voice of someone else. Eve comes to this place where she reasons with the serpent, the devil. She begins to listen to that voice. Maybe I didn't hear God clearly. And folks, that's the tactic of the devil, to distort the voice of God, to take away the voice of God, to make you question, to make you doubt. Did God really say that? Did God really say I shouldn't go with an unsafe person? Yes. Did God really say we should not sleep with other until we're married? Yes. Did God really say that it's wrong for me to sin? Yes. Yes. You see, the devil would say to you, it's okay. You're gonna do what you want. We'll deal with the consequences later. And folks, so many times I sit with people who have listened to the voice of the devil, who have listened to the voice of an ungodly man or an ungodly woman, and they've come to this place, folks, where they're sitting with me or my wife or someone in the church, and they're saying, how did it get here? Because one day they listened to your voice, all the people would start to hear the voice of God, the voice of the preachers and the Christians that are preaching the truth, the voice of those crying on our streets. There is a better way. His name is Jesus Christ. You see, folks, we come to this place where your life at times can depend on which voice you're gonna listen to. You're gonna either listen to what God has to say. You see, he came, John says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was God, and the word was with God. Sorry, the word was God, the word was with God, and the word was God. All things were created by him. Nothing was created without him. Folks, he is the word. When you get into the details of that sermon, the Logos, he is the word, he is the sermon, he is the message. Folks, Jesus was the word of God. He brought a message from his father. He brought a living word to the world. He left us the word of God to guide our lives, to guard our lives, to guard our hearts, to help us make right decisions. And folks, listen to me, does the voice you listen to matter? Yes. Turn off the news for a while. Turn off the TV. Turn off the media. Listen to nothing but the word of God. Let it transform your mind. Let it renew your mind, folks. Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus. Walk in the spirit. Let the word of God direct your life. I remember, and I'll finish with this. I remember the testimony of one of her girls. And she says that the night she got saved was when she ended up in prison. But in prison, God met with her. She says someone give her a Bible. And she says after she began to read it while in prison, why did someone not give me this years ago? For years, people have been trying to tell me how to live my life. If I just had had this book, I can see all the mistakes I ever made were in this. Why did I not know about this book years ago? Folks, there is something incredible about the word of God that will guide your life. You see, for many years, she had listened to voices. Voices of all sorts of individuals. But essentially, all them voices brought her to a place where essentially near destroyed her life. But there was a voice that day in the prison that broke through all the other voices. There was a voice that day that cried out, I love you, I wanna save you, I wanna rescue you, I wanna take your life and I wanna change it. And folks, praise God, hallelujah. She listened to that voice. That voice changed her life. It was the voice of God speaking into her heart, all because one day somebody give her a Bible to read. Folks, I'm telling you now, the greatest and most important book you could ever read in your life is the word of God. It's the Bible. Don't disregard it. Wake up every morning, listen to his voice. Hear what the word of God says. Hear what Christ has to say to you. I know at times the spirit speaks to your hearts, but he will never go outside this book. Listen to the voice of God. Listen to what he has to say about your marriage. Listen to what he has to say about your job. Listen to what he has to say about your family. Let God speak into your life. Let God take control. Stop listening to the voices around you. And folks, even if a man of God, even if a preacher comes and says something contrary to this book, you disregard it. You always come back to the authority of the word of God. It is the only voice you'll ever need. Remember when the two were on the road in Mass, when the word spoke to them, did our hearts not burn within us while he expounded all that Moses and the law had said about himself. Folks, listen to me. You need the word. The word will guide you. The word will use your life. The word will take you to places where you never dreamed of. The word of God will transform you in such a way. All for the glory of God and the souls of man. Amen. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/MJ_clMVhJDk.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/lee-mcclelland/whos-voice-are-you-listening-to/ ========================================================================